


0 






























aN Saas 





} The House being in Committee of the Whole | 
y on the state of the Union, (Mr. Burrinton in 
f the chair,) and having under consideration the 
Mm bill to provide for the payment of outstanding 
i Treasury notes, to authorize a loan, to ree | 
f late and fix the duties on imports, and for other 
i purposes-—— 
) «6s Mr. CAREY said: 
Mr. Coarrman: I avail myself of this oppor- 
tunity of saying to the Committee what I in- 
h tended to have said to the House a few days ago, 
and that, too, upon a new subject. There is one 
m subject which we have been so much accns- 
tomed to hear discussed upon this floor, that I 
# do not know but I may be considered out of 
order if I do not talk upon this negro question. 
| Mr. HATTON. You are certainly out of or- 
der if you attempt, in this Committee, to dis- 
cuss anything except the negro question. Here, 
#) nothing is recognised as of sufficient import- 
iy ance to entitle it to consideration, unless it in- 
) volves a disquisition on slavery. {Laughter.] 
| Mr. CAREY. Iam going to make a few re- 
| marks upon a matter which I conceive to be of 
great importance to the agricultural interests of 
| this country. J have no doubt that some gen- 
tlemen may consider that out of order; but I 
m will venture to proceed, even if it is out of or- 
der; and, in order to Jay a foundation for my 
‘zemarks, I will offer a resolution to be read as 
apart of my argument, for I know it would not 
Ain order to offer it now for adoption :. 
‘Resolved, That the Committee on Agricul- 
re be, and they are hereby, instructed to re- 
* port.to this House a bill for the promotion of 
“¢ the ihterest of agriculture, for the organiza- 
the agricultural division of the Depart- 
gf the Interior, now in a defective con- 
nd demanding an immediate remedy.” 
ye * Il known to every man upon this 
‘floor, wh pees reflected for one moment, that 
f agriculture ies at the foundation of cifiliza- 
tion, and of all other interests of the country. 


* hy \ 
at, : 








ste 


- THE CLAIMS OF AGRICULTURE. 





SPEECH 


IHION. JOHN CAREY, OF OHIO. 


Delivered in the U. 8S. House of Representatives, April 27, 1860. 


Qa 


It is the only institution of the country that has 
not some attention paid to it by the Govern- 
ment of the United States. Now, I find an 
illustration of the character of agriculture em- 
bodied in much better language than I can use, 
and J will adopt it as my own: 

“}EpUCATION OF THE AGRICULTURIST.—No 
‘man is so high as to be independent of the 
‘success of this great interest; no man is so 
‘low as not to be affected by its prosperity or 
‘decline. Agriculture feeds us; to a great de- 
“gree, it clothes us; without it, we could not 
‘have manufactures, and we should not have 
‘commerce. These all stand together, like pil- 
‘lars in a cluster, the largest in the middle, 
‘and that largest is agriculture. 

“The cultivation of the earth is the most 
‘important labor of man. Man may be civil- 
‘ized, in some degree, without great progress 
“in manufactures, and with little commerce 
‘with his distant neighbors; but without culti- 
‘vation of the earth, he is a roaming barba- 
‘rian. When tillage begins, other arts follow. 
‘The farmers, therefore, are the founders of 
‘human civilization.” 

That is the language of Daniel Webster ; 
and I think that no man will deny that that is a 
very fair and true statement. What condition 
and situation does agriculture maintain in the 
departments of the Government? It is placed 
under the direction of the Interior Department. 
It is only incidentally alluded to in the enumer- 
ation of the powers of the Secretary of the 
Interior. The head of the Patent Office is 
charged, among other things, with the collec- 
tion of statistics, seeds, plants, and cuttings. 
So that this great interest is in the second class 
of the fourth bureau of the Department of the 
Interior ; and so much of the time of the head 
of the Department is necessarily devoted to 
other branches of business, that little or no 
attention can be paid to the agricultural in- 
terest. There can be nothing effectual done 


mee 

for it unless you place the subject under the 
direct control of some department that will be 
responsible to the country for its proper per- 
formance. | : 

When the labor is divided among so many 
hands, the responsibility will be frittered away, 
and very little done. The resolution that has 
been read was directed by the Committee on 
Agriculture to be offered here, so as to get an 
expression of opinion on the subject, and sug- 
gest to the House whether it would instruct 
the committee to bring in a bill to establish an 
indpendent bureau of agriculture. I want 
gentlemen to reflect on the subject, so that, 
when the resolution can be offered in order, 
they will be able to vote intelligently on it. Hf 
they are disposed to encourage the institution 
of agriculture, they will vote for the resolution ; 
if they are not so disposed, they will vote it 
down, and the thing ends; and we will let it 
remain where it is. 

» When the Government was organized, in the 
discussion on the subject the agricultural class 
was alluded to, especially by Mr. Madison, as 
the great class out of which members of Con- 
ress would be chosen, and therefore that that 
interest would be protected like all others. 
Now, you have in this body, I suppose, about 
a dozen farmers. The interest of no commu- 
nity will be attended to with punctuality and 
zeal, unless those in charge of 1t have a direct 
interest in the subject. 
own interests to promote; the mechanic his; 
the doctor his; and if the interests of the 
farmer are to be promoted, that class must be 
represented by those who know something 
about its wants, its necessities, and its con- 
dition. We have now in Congress but very 
few farmers; and you find your agricultural 
interests in the Government committed to a 
clerk in one corner of the Patent Office, who 
peddles out seeds. That is about the extent 
of the care given to the great agricultural in- 
terests of the country. Ifyou cannot do better 
than that, you had better abolish the office 
altogether, and leave the agricultural class to 
take care of themselves. 

One great evil in the country is, that political 
offices are open to men, where they can get 
much higher wages than they can get on a 
farm; and it is a lamentable fact, that through- 
out the country where | am acquainted, and I 
believe it is generally so, agriculturists are now 
educating their children, not for the culture of 
the soil, but for something which they regard 
as more elevated. You find them seeking 
places in the professional classes of society, or 
you find them around your capitals ofthe States 
and of the United States, seeking employment, 
seeking the loaves and fishes dispensed by the 
Government. That is a matter of great im- 

ortance to the country. When a man gets 
bom four to five dollars a day for doing little or 

nothing, and can only get a dollar a day for 
laboring on a farm, there must be injury done 


ON 


Lhe lawyer has his | 


ww", a. 
5 3.) 


to the agricultural interest. If hy he | fe 
anything to promote the interests of agriculture, 
you must get rid of a great deal of the political 
excitement in this Halland in the country ; for 
the very moment men find they can earn a liy- 
ing with less exertion in one direction than in 
another, and that one occupation is more lu- 
crative than another, that moment their efforts 
are bent in that direction. iia 

Such has been the case in reference to the 
profession of law; and we now have young men 
in Ohio—and I suppose there are such every- 
where in the country—who, considering the 
study of law as a stepping-stone to promotion, 
have studied just enough law to give them the 
name of lawyers. Then they become politicians, 
go through the country making political speech- 
es, and fill the country with a feverish state of 
excitement. In the next step of their progress 
they come into this Hall, and pursuing the 


| same course of speech-making and creating ex- 


citement upon political topics, we who desire 
to get the floor tor the consideration of matters 
of great public interest outside of politics, can 
rarely do so without a struggle almost as great 
as would be necessary to make a fortune ordi- 
narily. [Laughter.]| Ido not wish to make 
any indecorous remarks in reference to this 
honorable body; but I have absolutely seen 
exhibited upon various occasions, in this hall, 
such a struggle for the floor, and such an effort 
to see who could talk loudest and longest, as, 
if exhibited in a neighborhood of tarmers, 
would be considered not very respectable, to 
say the least of it. 

Mr. Chairman, the interests of the country at 
this time demand, from the hands ofevery man 
who has any regard for his country or his coun- 
try’s welfare, a cessation of this extraordinary 
excitement upon the subject of politics. Whea 
you hear gentlemen upon this floor seriously 
talking about a dissolution ofthe Union; when 
you see & Convention of men of one single 
party of this Government dividing in reference 
to that question, so important to the institutions 
of our country, f think it is time that every one 
of us should begin to pause and reflect in ref- 
erence to the consequences. It is not extra- 
ordinary patriotism that actuates men in making 
all this disturbance; and if it is, lam going to 
suggest a plan to get rid of at least one-half of 
this excess of patriotism, and to make the other 
half worth four times as much as it is now. 
[Laughter.] You will do much towards ac- 
complishing that, if you will reduce the com- 
pensation of men in and around this Capitol,” 
and in the various departments of Government, 
to somewhat of an equality with the compensa- 
tion of men who pursue other vocations of life. 
Let not a man here who opens and shuis your 
doors receive three dollars a day, while a man 
who mauls rails gets but fifty cents or 4 dollar. 
If you employ here ten men to do the labor of 
one at home, and it becomes understood in th 
country that men can make more /aoney her 








hy eaands 29 3a 08 Commerce. +e a 


Re 
r\ 


jiry? 
\responds with the expectations of our constitu: 


y 


JS} 


“Ahan at eae you will find men rishing here 


(Avom every quarter of the Union, secking for 
Affice. 
“are disturbing the whole community. 
“come from the lowest to the highest ranks— 
from the constable up to the Presidential aspi- 


And that is the very class of men who 
They 


prant. 

Task you to compare the moral, social, and 
political condition of this country, with. what it 
was thirty years ago. I am acquainted with 
the workings of this Government, and have 
been fora great many years. Over sixty years 
ago I went into the Western country, when that 
portion of it which now occupies five States 
northwest ofthe Ohio river contained but twen- 
ty-five or thirty thousand inhabitants. I have 
seen that mighty country grow up; and I have 
seen the physical, moral—I will not say the 
political—condition. of that country: improve, 
and become what it is now admitted to be— 
not excelled in these respects by any portion 
of this country. 

Now, there is not a gentleman upon this 
floor but will agree with me, that here is the 
source of all these abuses, and that it is just as 
plain as it is to multiply two by two. Pay men 
in proportion to their services, and make the 
pursuit of agriculture just as profitable as it is 
to open and shut these doors, and you will 
lessen this struggle for office. Pay your mem- 
bers of Congress just about half what you pay 
now, and you will have just as able members 
of Congress, and you vill havea great deal less 
disturbance. Just in proportion as you increase 
the salaries of men, just in that proportion do 
you increase their extravagant modes of living. 
Office is then hunted for, and an excitement is 
gotten up by this scramble for office, which 
demoralizes the country and everything con- 
nected with it. 

» Now, I appeal to gentlemen upon this floor ; 
if the people of the country could come here 
and witness what I have witnessed upon this 
floor, would they not-be astonished at the spec- 
tacle? They would see one part of the House 
arrayed against the other, and at times, ap- 
parently, in the very attitude of war. And 
what is all this about? Why, it is all about 
the negro. That is, however, but a scape-goat. 
The negro has a great deal to do with this mat- 
ter, but “there are other controlling influences. 
And until these are driven out of the arena of 
conflict, and the people apply the remedy, you 
need not look for any great change. But we 
have great difliculty now in understanding 
what the Constitution means. We have side 
issues, and we have front and rear issues, and 
we cannot understand language at all as we did 
a few years ago. 

All these things have resulted in the greatest 
excitement, and in what I must pronounce a 
most ridiculous state. of things. L ask if these 
influences are not spreading ‘all. over the coun- 

I ask you whether our action here cor- 


9 
oo 


ents? We are doing a great many things here 
which we would not like to let our constituents 
know. |[Laughter,] And until gentlemen can 
meet on this floor, and meet as men meet else- 
where, and attend to their business faithfully 
and honestly, you will have just what you have 
seen here. The people will be deceived, and 
parties will war to the knife, and yet divide the 
spoils. When you offer to the man who. per- 
forms what you consider your menial services 
about the Capitol, and in similar situations in 
the States, the same fair compensation that the 
farm laborer receives, you will effect a great im- 
ly a in all our public affairs. This dispar- 
of compensation tends to elevate one class 
ove another, and increases the extravagance 
of living of the better. -compensated class; and 
that expense greatly exceeds what a man can, 
by honest industry, and by private efforts in the 
ordinary ways of life, earn. 

Slavery is degrading to a white man who 
works; and for that reason I object to slavery 
going into a free Territory. It degrades the 
white laborer. J do not ask that you will raise 
farming above what it now is. Let it stand 
upon its own merits, and let those who are here 
receive but the wages they get at home. That 
is all Lask. Unless there is something done 
to arrest the political excitements of the day, 
just so sure as we are alive we will become a 
distracted and severed people. 

I consider an examination into these ques- 
tions of great importance. We must put down 
the extravagance of the times. We see, every 
day, that expenses are increasing, and labor is 
becoming degraded, The farmer has now no 
ground for encouragement. He is merely re- 
garded as a farmer. 

Now, if you really do want to do anything 
for the great agricultural interest of the country, 
then let there be a separate department of the 
Government established for its benefit, and let 
some man be placed at its head who is compe- 
tent for the discharge of the duties imposed 
upon him. Let that man be responsible to 
the country for the proper performance of his 
functions of office. As it is now, Secretary 
Thompson, of the Interior Department, has 
not the time to pay attention to the agriculture 
of the country. Governor Thomas, of the Pat- 
ent Office, has not time to pay attention to it, 
and the subject is left to the head of another 
bureau; and if you inquire of him, he says that 
he has no control over it. [Laughter.] Let this 
evil be remedied, for agriculture is the founda- 
tion of the progress of all our other great in- 
terests. 

Mr. Chairman, before I sit down, I will make 
a few remarks upon the topics of constant dis- 
cussion in this Hall. It may be that my opin- 
ions may be desired by my constituents. What- 
ever they are, I hesitate not frankly to express 
them. Day after day have we had fierce dis- 
cussions of every manner of distracting ques- 
tions. Now, I think that if we would return to 





4 é 


the ancient construction of the Constitution — 
if we would construe it as it has been con- 
strued until within the. last ten years—there 
would then be no further difficulty on the sub- 
ject of slavery. In the early days of the Re- 
public, slavery was regarded as an evil, In 
the organization of this Government, its mis- 
chievous tendencies were not concealed. At 
the time of the Revolution it was one of the 
complaints against the mother country, that 
she poured numbers of African slaves upon our 
coasts, and thereby degraded our white labor. 


Mr. SMITH, of Virginia. JI bope the gen- 
tleman will allow me to interrupt him, that I 
may say one word. 


Mr. CAREY. I would rather go on without 
interruption, but I yield to the gentleman. 

Mr. SMITH, of Virginia. If, when gentle- 
men make statements like those we bave heard, 
we remain silent, it will look as if we yielded 
our assent to them. I utterly repudiate and 
deny the proposition stated by the gentleman 
from Ohio. 

Mr. CARHY. I appeal to history in reply 
to the gentleman’s disclaimer. If that be 
studied carefully, 1am sure that it will bear 
me out in what [ have said. I beheve that I 
am familiar with the principles of this Goyvern- 


ment which had ascendency until within a few 


years. I know, I think, what were the doc- 
trines of Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison, Mr. Ad- 
ams, and Mr. Monroe. ‘hey were the doc- 
trines, at the time, of all classes of the people. 


I have on two occasions given expression by 
my votes to my opinion on the subject which 
distracts this country. By my vote I have ex- 
pressed my opposition to the extension of sla- 
very. I do not believe that this Government 
has ai! power to extend slavery in this Union, 
upon this continent, or anywhere in the world. 
If it be said that the State sovereignties have 
the right to admit slavery within their midst, 
then I respond, that is a matter for the States, 
each by itself, to determine, and not for the 
Federal Government. We all know that Con- 
gress recognised the ordinance of 1787, which 
then excluded slavery from all the territories 
of the United States. The sixth section of that 
ordinance was repealed by the admission of the 
slave States South. 

A good deal has been said about a resolution 
of my colleague, [Mr. Buaxku,] upon which a 
vote by yeas and nays was taken in the House. 
Now,. sir, I voted for that resolution; I hoped 
that the subject would be referred to the Com- 
mittee on the Judiciary. he subject excited 
attention, and I had an idea of what the report 
of that committee would be, and I regret they 
were not allowed to report. If that committee 
had been allowed to make a report, I have not 
the least doubt that it would have had the effect 
to quiet this slavery excitement. I do not be- 
lieve that, under the Constitution, we have any 
more right to touch slavery in the States where 





it now is, than we have to interfere with the 
private property of our neighbors. 

This slavery extitement increases every four 
years, as the Presidential election approaches. 
Now, Mr. Chairman, if men will appeal to their 
own judgments, and reason from common-sense 
rules, there will be less political disturbance 
than there has been. ‘here would then be 
more probability of arriving at some more sen- 
sible conclusion on political questions. 

We hear threats of a dissolution of the Union, 
because of this slavery agitation. ‘The idea is 
extraordinary and unnatural. It is impossible 
that this people ean be divided and this Union 
disrupted. 

I was taught, from a boy, to venerate and re- 
gard this Union as the all-important thing in 
governmental affairs, and that separation would 
be a desolation. Now, supposing that, on the 
subject of this disturbing question of slavery, 
the South should secede, would it lessen these 
difficulties? We are now under obligations to. 
surrender to them their slaves, and the great 
portion of the people are willing that it shall be 
done. We have some people who interfere 
with this thing. We haye imprudent men at 
the North as well as at the South. But howis 
it possible to escape the consequences of these 
difficulties by separation? I know that men 
can swell themselves into a great deal of ex- 
citement and passion by exclamations about 
their constitutional rights. I believe, as much 
as I believe that I exist, that I have the con- 
stitutional right to demand that slavery shall 
not be extended. J know that it was the in- 
tention of the framers of the Government, and 
the design and expression of all the States, that 
they were, in a short time, to get rid of slavery. 
I know what all our great men have said on the 
subject; but the protound truths laid down by 
them are now regarded as heresies or as treason. 

Now, J ask my Southern friends, in all can- 
dor—for I have not a particle of feeling against 
a single State or individual—to weigh these 
matters with a little more prudence than they 
are in the habit of doing; and l ask my own 
friends, when they discuss this question, to dis- 
cuss it in a spirit of kindness and firmness. 
But we have got a notion recently that there is 
a kind of pluck necessary to be shown in every 
speech, otherwise we would be regarded as 
backing down. I do not think I lack pluck be- 
cause | do not abuse my neighbor. Would any 
of you, in discussing difficulties with your 
neighbors, be influenced by the slang which is 
in use here—by the term ‘‘ Black Republican?” 
If a member on either side of this House says 
an imprudent thing, it is seized upon by an- 
other, as if it were a fundamental principle of 
a party; and the people are excited by the 
belief that something very serious is approach- 
ing. | 

Now, if we would act like sensible men, and 


treat the subject with that candor.and eare which 2 | 


« 


its importance demands, instead of that ely 
) 


| 


5 


which we see manifested among members, we 
would see respectful greetings when we meet 
each other. et me tell you, my friends—and 
I have had some experience—that the very 
moment the first blow 1s struck for separation, 
secession, or dissolution, that very moment will 
the grandeur and magnificence that have been 
portrayed in such glittering and glowing terms 
fade away, and we will become a ruined, broken- 
down, and destroyed nation. 

Mr. REAGAN. The gentleman from Ohio 
has announced that there is no doubt that the 
original policy of the Government was to limit 
slavery to the States in which it existed. Now, 
it has occurred to me that a reference to the 
dates when Tennessee and Kentueky were ad- 
mitted into the Union, and when Mississippi 
and Louisiana were created Territories, might 
perhaps deserve consideration from him, before 
he comes to the conclusion, which he seems to 
have come to very sincerely. 

Mr. BINGHAM. If my colleague will allow 
me, I beg leave to remind the gentleman from 
Texas 

Mr. CARHY. I will answer the gentleman 
myself. I want the gentleman to know that I 
understand the history of the time. The Ter- 
ritory of Kentucky belonged to the State of 
Virginia, and slavery had extended there. It 
never belonged to the United States as a Ter- 
ritory. Neither did the others. 

Mr. REAGAN. The Northwestern Territory 
belonged to Virginia also. 

Mr. CAREY. Slavery did not exist there to 
any extent; and she ceded the Territory, with 
the condition that it should not exist there. 

Mr. REAGAN. It is true that the cession of 
the Northwestern Territory was a matter of 
compact before the formation of the present 
Constitution ; and it is also true that Kentucky 
was taken from the territory of Virginia, and 
Tennessee from the territory of North Caro- 
lina, after the Constitution was formed, and 
that slavery was permitted to exist in both; 
but the point to which my attention was called 
by the gentleman’s remark was the statement 
that slavery was regarded by the fathers as an 
evil which must be limited to the States where 
it was existing. If that was their conviction, 
how was it, when they had the power to ex- 
clude slaveholding States from coming into the 
Union, that they admitted the States of Ten- 
nessee and Kentucky with slavery; and that, 
in providing for the Territorial Governments of 
Mississippi and Lonisiana and Arkansas and 
Alabama and Florida and others, they express- 
ly recognised slavery in those Territories, and 
made no attempt to abridge it in the States 
where it existed ? 

Mr. CAREY. The States from which these 
Territories ‘were derived had already extended 
slavery over them, and they would not surren- 
der them, unless that principle was yielded. 
That I understand to be the political history of 
b it whole matter. In the case of Louisiana, 











it was a treaty stipulation which could not be 
got over. 

But, Mr. Chairman, I think it is too late in 
the day to begin to question the views which 
our fathers entertained on this subject. I have 
read the views of all the distinguished men of 
the United States on the subject of slavery. [ 


jnave recently read all that Mr. Jefferson said 


‘On the subject. [have read his correspondence 
with A, B, and ©, not only in the United States, 
but in foreign countries. He abhorred slavery, 
and believed that it wouid be abolished by the 
States themselves. I speak now of the time of 
the organization of the Government, and for 
many years after it; but I admit that Mr. Jef- 
ferson changed his opinions somewhat after the 
Missouri question had awakened excitement in 
the country. 

Mr. REAGAN. It has been declared here, 
by a number of speakers, that Mr. Jeiferson 
and others regarded slavery as wrong in the 
abstract. There is, however, one fact in our 
history on this subject, to which attention has 
not been specifically directed by any of the 
speakers 

Mr. CAREY. I must proceed with my re- 
marks. I know that this is an important ques- 
tion at this particular time, because upon it 
turns the propriety or impropriety of the course 
of all parties. In the view of the people at the 
time of the formation of the Government, there 
was no question more settled or fixed, than 
that slavery was a curse, and was not to be 
extended; and the Government disposed of that 
question, by providing that slavery should not 
exist in any portion of its territory. What 
stronger illustration of their views of slavery 
could they give than that? 

My friends of the South have got a little too 
fast on this subject. I hope they will remain 
contented with their rights under the Constitu- 
tion. Iwill guaranty that not one of those 
rights will be infringed upon. When they ask 
more than those rights, I believe they ask that 
which they will not get. I say this respect- 
fully. | 

J know how easy it is for men to reason that 
this thing or that thing is expedient. I know 
that men call that thing expedient which they 
want. So it is when we pursue our filibuster- 
ing policy. We do not stimulate filibuster ex- 
peditions because we have any peculiar love for 
the people of the countries against which those 
expeditions are directed. It is not that that 
actuates us, but a spirit of aggrandizement. 
When was it that a man was satisfied with his 
acquisitions, until he learned that he could add 
no more to the bulk of his fortunes? Does any 
Government relax in disposition to acquire new 
territory, as it increases in strength? No, sir; 
as it grows in strength, it seeks to grasp more 
territory. Such has been the history of the 
world. We are trying to make this a too mag- 
nificent Government. We seek to build up too 
much tawdry splendor in-the Federal capital. 





In Washington, what seductions are in this 
Hall, and out of it, to secure men if their fat 
places of emolument! Now, we will do well 
if we will go to work like honest men, and 
strike off the excrescences that affect the body 
politic. et the hordes of servants and retain- 
ers, uselessly employed, be dismissed. If we 
do that, then we will do what is valuable. 
Just as you raise wages here, will they be 
raised elsewhere in the country for like ser- 
vices. 

The States imitate exactly the example of 
the Federal Government. Jour dollars a day 
do not pay a man’s expenses, [am told. We 
hear it asserted that $3,000 a year will not 
more than pay necessary expenses. I am 


6 


say, that this Government will be crushed ont. 
This Government will not now be dissevered. 
No, sir, my fear is that we will wear out; that 
our people will degenerate and become enerva- 
ted and emasculated, as are the people of Asia, 
because of their debauchery and mode of living. 
There is no man acquainted with history who 
will not have the same fear. No Government 
that has preceded us ever had the same facili- 
ties of destruction. We have all the arts and 
sciences of former years, together with those 
unknown to the ancients. I must believe that 
we are unfortunately driving towards the brink 
of destruction. ‘There is no hope but by retra- 
cing our steps, and again adopting the policy 
of our fathers. Where is the man, where the 


credibly informed that some members expend | party, that will begin it? It must be begun if 


$6,000 and $10,000 a year. 
right to do that, for then they expend from 
their own private means. I will not inter- 
meddle with the private rights of individuals ; 
but when the Government is taxed for the 
purpose of exalting certain men above their 
fellows, I say that I have a right to object. 
There is no man in this country who feels 
more delighted than I do in its legitimate 
advancement in wealth and prosperity but 
sir, | fear luxury and enervation. [f feel proud 
that I have lived to see a comparative wilder- 
ness, occupied by twenty-five thousand inhabit 
ants, blossom into full-grown States, with a 
population of nine million. May I never live 
to see them sunken into an Asiatic degen- 
eracy ls 

No man with a more swelling heart contem- 
plates the growth of this country. I am fear- 
ful, however, that our people are too fast; and 
that unless they change their course they’ must 
rapidly degenerate. We do a great many 
things for which it would be difficult to find a 
power in the Constitution. A, B, and OQ, are 
hunted up, and money is squandered upon 
them. Relics of distinguished men who have 
gone before us are overburdened with national 
munificence. Yet we hear constantly much 
about the Constitution; such, however, is the 
technicality of the rules of this House, that it 
is impossible for a man to say no, let the ques- 
tion be ever so objectionable. Consider it. If 
you will not change these things, then I call 
upon the people fo hurl every member from 
this House, and put in those who will restore 
the better days of the Republic. 

Mr. Chairman, we are often designated as 
the servants of the people. Is it not curious 
that the servants live much better than the 
masters? Yet we make the people’s politics, 
too often. We make them believe this and 
that, because they put confidence in us. 

I confess that [am not accustomed to speak- 
ing in public. I know what I do. If I had 
the fluency of others, I would have a long story 
to tell. I have said what I have at the risk of 
criticism. I have endeavored to state plain 
and substantial truths. Ido not believe, let me 











They have the | we are to be saved. Here is the place to ‘begin 


it. Let us exhibit by our acts what we profess 
to be. 

I will now, sir, say a few words to my par- 
ticular friends. Jam not ashamed of being a 
farmer—a laborer; [ am proud that I have 
done my share of work. despise the man 
who will declare that labor is disgraceful. It 
is blasphemy. God said that man should earn 
his bread by the sweat of his brow. If I have 
ever done anything valuable, it has been the 
actual manual labor 1 have performed in as- 
sisting to develop a new country. Iam proud | 


to say it. I ask whether we have not here too 
many talkers? They are not laborers nor 
farmers. There are men who want to do all 


of the talking; at least, they want to lead in all 
the talking. Who can deny that? It is a 
lamentable truth. The evil has even extended 
to our boarding-honses. [| Laughter. ] 

Why, sir, it would be impossible tor a man, 
anywhere here in Washington, even among the 
ladies, to get out half a sentence without being 
interrupted. [Laughter.] This may be laugh- 
able; but it is as true as the other statements I 
have made. I ask these gentlemen, who are so 
flippant and smart, to reflect that every man 
here, by the Constitution of his country—and 
we are all Constitution-loving men—has just as 
many rights as they have. 

Abstractly, there is not a man upon earth 
who really believes that he has a right to prop- 
erty in another man’s labor. But a question 
of expediency comes in; and while gentlemen 
will talk about this matter, I ask these law- 
yers—and I have seen eight, ten, or twelve of 
them struggling for the floor at the same time— 
that they will reflect that others have an equal 
tight to be heard, though they are crowded out 
by the severe struggle. It may be regarded as 
ridiculous to talk in this way, but i talk pretty 
much what I believe to be true; and if gentle- 
men will say it is not true, and prove it be 
not true, 1 am willing to retract. JI know it 
may be called indecorous for a man of my 
age, and among these scientific gentlemen, 
to talk in this way, but I am impelled to ig 
by facts which stare me in the face; aa 






1 be 


* 


there is not a man in the House who will not | ing a greater evil upon the country. They were 
agrge that what I say is true. Why, I have! not able to send off their slaves, and it would 


heard ladies say, “Is it possible that you do 
not behave yourselves better?” [ Laughter. | 

We occupy‘in this House an exalted posi- 
tion; and just in proportion as our position is 
exalted, and we do not come up to what that 
position requires of us, we are degraded. This 
leap year in politics is a very dangerous year 
[laughter] for this Government. J am _ not 
talking for Buncombe, for I shall never con- 
sent to be a member of Congress again; but 
so far as I have any influence among my con- 
stituents, J shall talk to them just as 1 do to 
you; and if they do not believe me, it will be 
their fault, and not mine; for I know, and you 
all know, that I tell the truth. I do not believe 
there is a man here who will get up and say 
that Lam not speaking the truth. | will now 
yield the remainder of my time to my friend 
from Texas. I call him my friend, because I 
call every man in this House my friend, so long 
as he conducts. himself in a gentlemanly man- 
ner. oeenee| 

Mr. REAGAN. I do not wish to occupy 
much time. It is not material, perhaps, that I 
should say anything; but the observation I 
wished to submit is this: that the views of Jef: 
ferson and others of his day have been fre- 
quently presented in this House, to show that 
they were, in the abstract, opposed to slavery in 
their time. That proposition may be true; 
but to give a correct understanding of what 
seems to some gentlemen to be a change of 
conviction upon that subject, I desire to say, 
that some thirty or forty years ago, indeed 
within my recollection, very many of the peo- 
ple of the South believed that slavery was an 
evil; but that they had the institution among 
them, and could not get rid of it without inflict- 








not do to turn them loose amoug them. 

Now, I wish to say, in that regard, that it is 
probable, ifa crusade had not been instituted 
against the slaveholders; if they had not been 
denounced as wicked and cruel men for en- 
dorsing what many of them at the time did not 
consider abstractly right, I have no doubt that 
slavery would have been perpetuated ; but that 
the condition of the slaves would have been 
ameliorated, as, indeed, it has been to some 
extent; but the amelioration of their condition 
has been arrested, to a considerable extent, by 
the action of men who would have precipitated 
their liberation, and who denounced and re- 
viled the owners of the slaves. The attack 
made upon the slave owners brought into ques- 
tion the morality of slaveholding, the philoso- 
phy of slaveholding, the justice and policy of 
holding slaves; and necessity forced upon peo- 
ple who owned slaves the necessity of a thor- 
ough and full investigation of the whole sub- 
ject, in its political, social, and moral bearing ; 
into the mental capacity and moral power of 
the African race; their condition when left to 
themselves, and their relative condition when 
in subordination to a more intelligent race of 
men. The result of a most liberal aud thorough 
investigation, followed out in all its details, has 
within thirty years worked out a great revolu- 
tion in the minds of men, particularly in the 
country where the institution existed, in refer- 
ence to slavery ; and the conviction is now thor- 
oughly fixed in the mind of the people of the 
South, that there is not, abstractly, any sin 
in the holding of slaves; that there is no moral 
wrong in holding slaves; that there is no so- 
cial or domestic inconvenience in holding slaves, 
as there was supposed to be thirty years ago. 





PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: OF 1860), 


REPUBLICAN EXECUTIVE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE, 





HON, 


(as 
¢¢ 


PRESTON KING, N. Y., Chairman. | 
cr Ve Gee TOWA. 
Dik . FOSTER, CONN 


On the part of ‘the Senate. 
KE. B. WASHBURNE, ILLINOIS. 


é¢ 


The Committee are prepared to furnish the following Speeches and Documents : 


EIGHT PAGES. 

W. H. Seward: State of the Country. 

W. H. Seward: ‘Irrepressible Conflict” 
Speech. 

G. A..Grow, Penn.: 

- Men. 

James Harlan, lowa: Shall the Territories 
be Atricanized ? 

John Hickman, Penn.: 
Comprorises. 

B. F. Wade, Ohio: 
Ferry. 

G. W. Scranton and J. H. Campbell, Penn.: 
The Speakership. 

F, P. Blair, Mo., Address at Cincinnati : 
Colonization and Commerce. 

Orris S. Ferry, Conn. 

Abraham Lincoln, ll.: The Demands of 
the South—The Republican Party Vin- 
dicated. 

Wiliam Windom, Minn.: The Homestead 
Bul—tlts Friends and its Foes. 

Owen Lovejoy, of Mlinois: The Barbarism 
of Slavery. 

Heary L. Dawes, Mass.: The New Dogma 
of the South—“ Slavery « Blessing.” 
~R.H. Duell, N. Y.: The Position of Parties. 
M. 8S. Wilkinson, Minn.: The Homestead 

Bill. 
. D. W. Gooch, Mass. : 

Carl Schurz, Wis.: 

eignty. 
Lands for the Landless—A Tract. 
The Poor Whites of the South—The ae done 
them by Slavery—A. Tract. 


Hon. 


C6 





Free Homes for Free 


Who have Violated 


Invasion of Harper’s 


Polygamy in Utah. 
Douglas and Popular Soe 


SIXTEEN PAGES. 


Hon. Lyman Trumbull, Ill.: Seizure of the Ar- 
senals at Harper’ 3 Ferry, Va. and Liberty, 
Mo., and in Vindication of the Republi- 
can ’Party. 

B. F. Wade, Ohio: Property in the Terri- 
tories. 

& ©. H. Van Wyck, N. Y.: True Democracy— 

History Vindicated. 


t¢ 


And all the leading Republican Speeches as delivered. 


_ During the Presidential Campaign, Speeches and Documents will be supplied at the follow 
reduced prices: per 100—8 pages 50 cents, 16 vee $1, and larger documents in 


Address sh of the above Committee. Mak 





* 







































HON. JOHN COVODE, PENN, Treasurer. 
ae deal OE SPAULDING, N, iit 
Cr iesdie ios AGLI HY. MASS. 
fe MD AVAL) KILGORR, INDIANA. 
MN id aN LL be ATTON, Nid Ae ee 
On the pari of the House of Reps. 


: 


Hon. H. Wilson, Mass.: Territorial Slave Code 
“  Jobn P. Hale, Ne 
« J.J. Perry, Me.: “Posting the Books b 

tween the North and the South.” Tae 

J. R. Doolittle, Wis.: The Calhoun Rev: 
lution—Its Basis and its Progress. Ri 

C. B. Sedgwick, N. Y.: The Republied# 
Party the Result of Southern Aggressiolit 

M.J. Parrott, Kansas: Admission of Kansai 

Federalism Unmasked : Or the Rights of thi 

States, the Congress, the Executive, ari 
the People, Vindicated against the Ei 
croachments of the Judiciary, promp 
by the Modern Apostate Democrac 
Being a Compilation from the Writi 
and Speeches of the Leaders of the O 
Jeffersonian Republican Party. By Da 
iel R. Goodloe. | 


TWENTY-FOUR PAGES. 
Hon. Jacob Collamer, Vermont. 


4 


oC 


~ 


¢ 


THIRTY-TWO PAGES. 
Hon. Thomas Corwin, of Ohio. 


(GERMAN. 


RIGHT PAGES. 
Hon. G. A. Grow, Penn.: _ Free Homes ae Pr 
Men. a 
James Harlan, loan: Shall the Territor 
be (AfeiGunived? 
John Hickman, Penn.: Who Have Violate 
Compromises. : 
William Windom, Minn. : The Homeste 
Bill—lIts Friends and its Foes. ‘ 
“ HH. Winter Davis, Md.: Election of Spea 
Carl Schurz, Wis.: Douglas and Popular Se 
eignty. Deh Ea 


6 
é¢ 


(Ts 


SIXTEEN PAGES. ie 
Hon. Lyman Trumbull, Ul.: Seizure of the Ar 
nals at Harper’s Ferry, Va., and Libert; 
Mo., and in Vindication on ‘the ecm 
can Party. 
W. H. Seward, N. Y.: The State of tb 
Country. i : SO aa 
Lands for the Landless—A Tract. 


Ge 


GEORGE HARRINGTON, Sx 


